Aisling Brady McCarthy held without bail as defense prepares for April trial

Lawyers for Aisling Brady McCarthy appeared Tuesday in Middlesex Superior Court in Woburn, MA filing pre-trial motions in preparation for defending the Co. Cavan native, who faces 1st degree murder charges in the January 2013 death of one year old Rehma Sabir.

In December, Judge S. Jane Haggerty denied a defense motion to dismiss the murder charges, but ordered related assault charges in the case be dropped.

Court records show that Judge Haggerty issued a decision just before Christmas denying the request for bail and Brady McCarthy will continue to be held until the scheduled trial date of April 6.

Aisling Brady McCarthy did not appear in court and defense arguments were led by attorney David Meier, who was joined by Melinda Thompson at Tuesday’s hearing.

In what has become a recurring theme of the pre-trial hearings, Judge Haggerty expressed frustration with the prosecutor’s failure to make good on commitments to share evidence and reports with the defense.

When Assistant District Attorneys Patrick Fitzgerald and Adrienne Lynch were unable to commit to a timeline for delivery of medical tests and DNA analysis, Judge Haggerty called a recess and ordered Fitzgerald and Lynch to attempt to contact the experts performing the tests, and asked them to share with them that “the Judge is very upset and concerned that a defendant continued to be held in this case.”

When the session resumed DAs Fitzgerald and Lynch told the court that they were unable to contact any of the experts performing the tests. The Judge ordered them to return Wednesday afternoon with an update on when the defense can expect to receive the information.

Continuing through a long list of defense motions, Judge Haggerty ordered the prosecution to provide updates on several additional defense requests at Wednesday’s hearing and set a deadline of February 6th for the District Attorney’s office to list all witnesses and evidence that they intend to introduce at trial.